Dissertation Week at Stirling: 5-9 February

Information Services and Student Learning Services offer support to students at every stage of your dissertation. During #StirDisserationWeek we will be highlighting the support and resources available to you.  

Student Learning Services Support 

Student Learning Services (SLS) are available for face-to-face, virtual, and drop-in tutorials. If you have any questions about the structure, writing, referencing, or editing of your dissertation please do get in touch via email at sls@stir.ac.uk to book a slot. 

SLS also offer a range of helpful workshops as part of the Stirling Essentials Study Skills programme. Visit the Stirling Essentials Student Skills SharePoint site to see what’s on and to book a place.  

Session	Date	Time
Master Class: Master your Dissertation 1: What is a dissertation and defining your research questions	Tuesday 6 February	12-1pm
Dissertation writing and responding to formative feedback	Wednesday 14 February	10-12pm
Master Class: Master your Dissertation 2: Structure and writing	Tuesday 20 February	2-3pm
Dissertation writing and responding to formative feedback	Wednesday 28 February	2-4pm
Master Class: Master your Dissertation 3: Literature reviewing	Tuesday 12 March	2-3pm

See the Dissertation Section in the Student Learning Services module in Canvas for tips on structure, proofreading, and editing techniques.  

Library and IT Support  

Dissertation Week Reading List

Our librarians have created a list of some of the print and ebooks available in the Library to help with your dissertation. View our Dissertation Week Reading List. Pop into the library next week to see some of these books in our library display.

Finding Resources 

Struggling to find articles and books on your dissertation topic? Our Librarians are here to help you find resources for your dissertation research. You can also request an appointment with your Librarian. 

Wondering how to find past dissertations? The Library has some past undergraduate and taught postgraduate dissertations. Find out how to search for a dissertation and how to request it from store (scroll down to the section called Finding past dissertations).

Sometimes the library will not have all the materials that you need for your dissertation. You should still be able to access everything you need by using our Document Delivery Service. 

Session	Date	Time
Finding library resources for your dissertation	Wednesday 7 February	12-1pm
From Headlines to Citations: Navigating Newspaper Databases	Thursday 8 February	12-1pm

Referencing  

See our guides on referencing and referencing software.

Session	Date	Time
RefWorks Fundamentals	Tuesday 6 February	12-1pm
Harvard Stirling Referencing	Tuesday 13 February	11-12pm
OSCOLA	Tuesday 13 February	12-1pm
APA Referencing	Tuesday 20 February	12-1pm
Chicago Referencing	Wednesday 21 February	12-1pm

For more workshops on referencing see the Stirling Essentials Study Skills Workshops programme. 

Word Formatting your Dissertation  

Dreading the word formatting part of your dissertation? Fear not! We’ve added a brand new section to the Canvas and Learning Technologies (Students) module which includes help, training videos, and a template document to drop your text into.

From creating and saving a new document to creating styles to adding and editing footnotes, we’ve got it covered.

Check out the Word-Processing a Dissertation section now

Printing and Binding your Dissertation 

If you are required to submit a hard copy of your dissertation (please double-check with your department first) you may be required to print on a higher quality dissertation paper. We have two student printers, located in the Cottrell print suite 2A18, loaded with higher quality paper for printing dissertations.  

For more information on how to send your dissertation to these printers and details on the cost please see our section on printing your dissertation in UniDesk Self Service.  

Graphics and Print Services also offer a dissertation (soft) binding service. See our section on binding your dissertation in UniDesk Self Service for all the details.  

Don’t forget to have a look at our dissertation support pages in UniDesk Self Service for all things dissertation-related and keep an eye on #StirDissertationWeek on Twitter and Instagram.